Manufacturing & Assembly of MMTDA

The drone hardware can be broken down into three separate components: electronics, chassis, and mechanism.

1) Electronics

The electrical components are off-the-shelf products, with no manufacturing involved. However, some assembly is required for the electronics. This involves soldering the ESCs and battery connections to the power distribution board, and connecting the signal wires from the ESCs to the Arduino to receive motor speed commands. A number of electrical connections are made between the individual components and the flight controller (Arduino). For more details on the electronics and software, please refer to the relevant section.

2) Chassis

The chassis consists of two sheets of wood that are laser-cut, with the top and bottom face separated by wooden dowels to allow space for the mechanism to turn. The dowels are securely glued and screwed into the wooden boards. Due to time constraints, only one arm utilizes the mechanism, while the other three arms are fixed 3D-printed pieces that are screwed in directly to the chassis board. The electronics boards are also screwed directly into the wooden chassis plates, with the motors mounted at the end of each arm using 3D-printed motor mount plates. The ESCs and their wiring are zip-tied to the arms, while the battery is secured to the wooden chassis plate to allow for easy removal.

3) Mechanism

Figure 1. Propeller Arm

Figure 2. Bearing and Connectors

Figure 3. Transition Plate

Figure 4. Gear

The mechanism is made up of 3D-printed components, with the exception of wooden dowels used to create the pin joints. These wooden dowels are inserted between two coupling pieces and hot glued at both ends to allow for pin joint rotation. Screws are then used to fasten the joints to the wooden chassis or to the motor mount plate. Gears are also fixed to the bottom chassis plate using wooden dowels, which allow for a single rotary input to move the motor plate. For more details on the mechanism configuration, please refer to the relevant section. All printed parts were either of PLA or PETG filament, and were printed on either the CraftBots or Raise3D Pro printers.